Well I had a really fun and informative weekend at The Societies 2015 Convention. The convention is held in the London Metropole Hotel near to Paddington station so is easy for the many that travel from across the country and abroad to access. There is a huge selection of Classes for Photographers to attend on all aspects of Photography, with a large trade show for photographs to see the latest and best from the photographic trade. Not to mention the brilliant opportunity it presents for photographers to network with each other.
I spent Friday looking at the tradestands catching up face to face with some of the suppliers I use and also looking at new ones. So nice new products are going to be available soon so will keep you updated on that. I even managed to buy a few new props for my newborn photography sessions.
Saturday I went on an all day long Location workshop with Kevin Wilson. We had two great models. Kevin provided great tuition and the venue was the Safehouses situated in Peckham. A blank canvas was the theme of the day and the houses certainly provided that. Images of the day will follow in another blog.
Saturday evening was the Awards dinner when over 400 photographers gather for dinner and to celebrate the years photography. Trade awards are given and photographic awards for The 20″x16″ competition and the Golds awards from the Monthly Competition are then put forward to consideration for the Photographer of the Year.
Photographers may enter one image each month into any of the available categories the awards given are Gold or Highly Commended
Gold: these will go forward to the annual judging and are deemed to be images of the highest standard and will be published in Professional Imagemaker
Highly Commended: Above standard. These images will be reviewed every three months and have the potential of being reclassified as Gold.
I have been fortunate enough in 2014 to gain four gold awards and had two upgraded the previous year from Highly Commended to golds. I also gained several Highly commended.
Here are a few of my Highly Commended images from the year!
I spend a great amount of my time out and about with my camera and my dogs and am lucky to live in an area where there is a lot of Widlife. My Gold Awards for the year are predominantly from the Nature Category for 2014 but this is probably the category I always enter without fail.
For those following my blog you will know I had a nomination for the Nature Category this year with the Hare image above, which was very exciting. Unfortunately I was not lucky enough this year to win the category but it was an honour to be nominated and have an image thought worthy! I would like to congratulate all the winners and will be trying my utmost to be among them next year. The Awards for the Nature Category can be viewed here. http://show-vid.com/view/gkxadax4
